Budget cuts, international students, the long-study fine and the shooting at Erasmus MC. A wide range of topics came up when our President of the Executive Board Annelien Bredenoord was a guest of Sven Kockelmans' Radio 1 programme "Sven op 1".
She painted a picture of the unfortunate combination of budget cuts in science by the current cabinet and the expected decrease in international students due to the act "Wet Internationalisering in Balans", leaving Erasmus University Rotterdam facing a huge task.
Investing in knowledge is just what is needed
It also goes completely against the advice Bredenoord with the European High Level Expert Group Horizon Europe gave to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission: 'Invest in the knowledge economy, research and public-private cooperation. In the Netherlands we are doing exactly the opposite.'
Is this cabinet still a reliable partner?
The education budget does still have to be approved by the Senate, which Bredenoord says will be "a complicated issue". 'It was a huge package of critical questions from the Senate on this, as far as I am concerned justified questions. One of the things being focused on is: is this cabinet a reliable partner for knowledge institutions? If you invest 2.5 years ago - we all made commitments and attracted young bright minds - and the money for that falls away. Then, in that sense, the government is an unreliable partner for us and then it does become difficult with innovation.'
She goes on to explain that Dutch students also benefit from the "international classroom" and that technical innovation goes hand in hand with social innovation: 'Before you start using hydrogen, for example, you have to think about new markets, economic models and behavioural change.'
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Listen to the entire interview (in Dutch)
Annelien Bredenoord is president of the Executive Board of Erasmus University Rotterdam. View Bredenoord's profile.
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